April 9, 2010

Welding Lessons

Not really welding, actually, but metal cutting. When I went over to Housewerks for my weekly coffee talk with the owner Tracey, I found her getting a lesson in metal cutting from her business partner, Ben. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Housewerks has just taken apart an old Bethlehem Steel works and they have a ton, literally, of metal odds and ends.

She’s planning to use two of these metal carts for industrial-style planters and needed to add holes to the bottoms of them for drainage.

Out came the acetelyn-oxygen torch and tanks and off to work they went, with Ben leading the way and Tracey learning.While Ben and Tracey wore dark safety goggles, I just looked at the brilliant white light coming from the torch, fascinated with the way it could melt and then cut the metal. Unfortunately, Tracey’s goggles were a little too big, so Ben had to hold them onto her face.

After about 10 minutes’ work, ten holes were drilled in the bottoms of two carts/planters, and they were on their way to a new home and a new purpose.

About Me

Pigtown Design is the musings of Meg Fairfax Fielding, a Baltimore-based writer, photographer and fund-raiser, who explores design, architecture, culture, and current events in Baltimore and around the world.